A Storm Sweeps the City

Early the next morning, when the palace gates reopened, the guards suddenly discovered that something had fallen from above the gates. This thing should have been wedged in the crack of the gate.

This was no small matter. Any problem that appeared in the imperial palace had to be handled with utmost caution. Several guards exchanged looks, then hurriedly called over their companions and sealed off the surroundings. The captain of the guard slowly unfolded the sheet of paper in his hand. There were no traps inside, which made the guards breathe a sigh of relief. But when they saw what was written on the paper, their expressions changed.

"Quick, notify the ruler! Something major has happened!" The paper actually contained bounties from the Underground Mercenary Guild on certain members of the Imperial Family. Such things had never appeared within the Underground Mercenary Guild before.

Clearly, the Underground Mercenary Guild had another method for accepting missions, and the Imperial Family actually knew about it. After all, members of the Imperial Family sometimes placed bounties on people from other great Lineages. This channel also served as a cover for them.

One had to know that assassination was an extremely important line of business for the Underground Mercenary Guild. The Southern Cloud Kingdom had no assassin organizations because all other assassin organizations had been absorbed by the Underground Mercenary Guild. Yet what was written on this sheet was exceptionally grave. Quite a few members of the Imperial Family had their names listed on it, and every record was remarkably detailed.

Other than the names of the clients, everything was recorded: when the missions had been issued, how much the bounties had been, all of it. Only then did they discover that some items missing from the imperial palace had actually been stolen